Child Support Cases Get Little Call For Public Counsel

Implementation of a Northampton County administrative order entitling defendants in certain child support cases to a public defender started slowly yesterday.

Only one of more than 50 defendants summoned to appear at support compliance hearings needed a public defender.

None of the defendants at yesterday's proceedings landed in jail.

Nevertheless, representatives of thecounty Public Defender's office attended the sessions. The administrative order said domestic relations defendants who may face jail for willful contempt of support orders are entitled to free legal representation from the county.

The order was issued on Tuesday by Judge Richard D. Grifo in response to a class action suit filed by attorney David Scholl of Lehigh Valley Legal Services.

Qualified defendants may retain a public defender by following procedures already established for criminal defendants. They must meet income and asset criteria to be determined eligible.

Chief Public Defender Chester Reybitz represented one defendant, but Reybitz noted that the public defender's office would have represented that man, Luis Martinez, even before the order was issued, because Martinez had been jailed on a bench warrant from the county domestic relations section, as well as on detainers from the county's office of criminal courts.

Martinez, who is disabled and said he is awaiting the results of a disability hearing, was released from prison by Judge Van Antwerpen, who placed him on three months of special probation.

Before Reybitz arrived, the judge ordered that a public defender be brought to the courtroom when another defendant said his attorney had told him he would be unable to attend the hearing. Attorney Gary Asteak, whose office is down the street from the courthouse, sprinted to the courtroom and stood by as the judge heard evidence about the case of John Crisante. Crisante, according to the woman who is the mother of the beneficiary of Crisante's delinquent support payments, has abused her and lied about his medical and work records.

Crisante said he had been laid off, and had made a mistake when he told caseworkers he had been in the hospital in October.

The judge gave him a six-monthsuspended prison sentence, warning him that the sentence will be suspended only as long as he has a job, keeps current with his support payments, and keeps away from the mother of the child.

Joseph Cassidy, on whose behalf the class action suit was filed, also appeared for court yesterday. Cassidy had filed the suit, saying he was unable to afford an attorney and feared he would be imprisoned if he had no legal representation. Scholl said that Lehigh Valley Legal Services, which represents poor clients in civil matters, is unable to represent support noncompliance defendants because of funding reductions.

However, Cassidy did not need the services of a public defender, because he had not yet reached the point where he might be found in willful contempt. Scholl said that after the suit was filed, county officials told him and Cassidy that "they never go to jail on their first trip, but I didn't know that, and neither did he."